Bailiffs on site at Lido car park for Traveller group eviction

The Lido car park Photo Jools Moore

Bailiffs have been on site at the Lido car park in Cliftonville and moved a Traveller group off of the land.

The group arrived over the bank holiday weekend but there have been complaints to police over disturbances in pubs and shops last night (August 28) as well as resident reports of noise and littering.

The land was owned by private firm Stour Side Investments which bought the site in 2014 but is now in extended administration under Duff & Phelps.

Photo Kelly O’ Neill

In 2016 the Lido complex was put up for auction with a guide price of  £600,000 but it was later withdrawn.

Police officers were not involved in the removal as it private ground.

An action plan is being developed by Thanet council to deal with the growing number of unauthorised Traveller encampments in the district.

Photo Kelly O’Neill

A working group has been set up to investigate the issue and  look at areas including Traveller accommodation, security measures and increased enforcement at high risk areas.

Photo Lindsey Parish Wellard

An update from the council’s Traveller Review sub committee was due on October 22 but has been postponed. The meeting will now take place on November 19 at the council offices in Cecil Street from 7pm. Members of the public may attend.

Photo Jools Moore

Unauthorised camps have risen from two in 2013 to 50 last year and more than 40 this year.

Photo Lindsey Parish Wellard

Thanet does not have an authorised site. The nearest ones are in Dover and Canterbury.

19 Comments

  1. I am at a lose, can somebody please explain to me Travellers pitch up on The Lido ,private property, within a week Bailiffs have able to move them on. When they stop on Council property First welfare checks, on the same people you did welfare checks on last week. Then wasting time asking them to leave. When they do not move waiting for court dates etc. What is being done wrong by the Council? A week from turning up on site to Bailiffs sent to evict should and could be possible, As The Lido has shown. Well done to them. It is just a pity they will have to pay clean the site. The only way this eviction could have been better. Is if the Police, DVLA and VOSA had meet them at the gate. To check their vehicles.

  2. These people are Pikeys not gypsies or travellers. Pikeys always cause trouble and intimidate local residents wherever they squat. The children are trained to intimidate people also. How do they get all those expensive vehicals and camper vans? Its all true what people say. I know because I was a traveller years ago and this lot are Pikeys not travellers.

  3. I drove past yesterday and they were in a circle drinking beers and just chucking all the waste on the ground. Drove past today and saw some guys cleaning up with dozens of bags. It’s beyond my comprehension why people choose to live like this. TDC need to step up and get powers to remove immediately or seize all the vehicles.

  4. Think they have moved onto Deal Seafront, right in front of Deal Castle, Kentonline posted about an hour ago.

  5. They are causing trouble in social places now. Moved from one area they go to another on their list. Are they above the law because we,the taxpaying residents of Thanet have to abide by both police and council laws. More and more vans are joining these groups, who is going to stop them…for good.

  6. this is beyond farce but the only ones laughing are the “travellers” or should we call them commuters from one site to another would love to know the cost this year courts, clean ups. it must be getting into the hundreds of thousands of pounds and nothing is being done to stop them and now more are coming to join them in soft touch thanet

    • We stay on Deal seafront in our motorhome when we visit relatives in Deal. I would expect that now the council will put up ” No overnight stopping” notices, the travellers will STILL stop but law abiding, tax paying people like us won’t be able to. When we stop anywhere for a night we don’t leave anything but footprints and only take memories with us. These people are making it increasingly difficult for us to stop, not only at seafronts but it has lead to barriers on car parks so we can’t go into town for shopping. Please councils penalise the wrong doers not us !!!

  7. Totally agree with the above, it’s about time the law got tough on them, then the ones causing the trouble and making the mess may change their ways, but I doubt it.

  8. Very well evicting them … but where will they sprout up again in Thanet?
    They have specific sites that they keep going back and fourth to.
    I can also see this traveller community is expanding rather rapidly! I’ve noticed quite a few Irish number plates, so they’ve obviously been calling their friends from Ireland, asking them to get to Thanet!!

  9. So moved on from Lido and settling up in Dane Park AGAIN! The park has only just recovered from the disgusting mess left weeks just a few weeks ago.
    This madness needs to be resolved.

  10. How can it be legal for TDC to issue a fine for a tax paying member of the public dropping a fag butt, but for TDC to ignore the littering of the travellers ?
    Surely if you went to court with pictures of the mess the travellers leave behind compared to your fag butt, the court would see that TDC is picking on its rate payers and ignoring non rate payers and that TDC are treating people differently. The law is the law what gives TDC the right to decide it only fines rate payers. So if by chance I drop a fag butt I will tell the person writing out the fine that I am a traveller and he/she wont fine me is that correct TDC ??

  11. There are cameras on all roads in and out of thanet , why do the people in power not see these convoys coming down the motorways, stop them and turn them around before they get into thanet .

  12. Watched as around 30 mobile caravans drove past after being evicted from the Lido car park. Almost every one of them had the front number plates removed and the rear plates covered with cloths hanging out the back windows. Nasty looking teenagers glaring out from some too. These vehicles must be being used illegally on the highways but the police and DVLA were not in sight as the convoy headed down Wilderness Hill towards Dane Park or beyond. The court orders are supposed to stop re-setting up in the same place within 3 months though so they should be evicted immediately. What we need is a court order that semds them out of the district for 3 months or 6 months!!!

Comments are closed.